Eurydike (Dryad)

In Greek mythology, Eurydike was described as an oak nymph or in a rare version daughter of Apollo, the god of music. Eurydice was the wife of Orpheus, who loved her dearly.

Aristaeus, son of Apollo and Kyrene, saw Eurydike and got attracted towards her beauty. Once Aristaeus found Eurydike alone, tried to seduce her. In her headlong eagerness to escape, Eurydike stepped on a poisonous snake, was bitten and died instantly.

Distraught Orpheus played his lyre and sung so mournfully that all the nymphs and deities wept and told him to travel to the Underworld to retrieve her, which he gladly did. After his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, his singing so sweet that even the Erinyes wept, he was allowed to take her back to the world of the living.

In any case, the condition was attached that he must walk in front of her and not look back until both had reached the upper world. Soon Orpheus began to doubt that Hades had deceived him and Eurydice was not walking behind him. Just as he reached the portals of underworld and daylight, he turned around to gaze on her face, and because Eurydike had not yet crossed the threshold, she vanished back into the underworld.